For regional anesthesia, a cathether such as an epidural catheter is used to introduce anesthetic agents to the nerves for example at the spine of a patient. To place a catheter close to the nerve spinal column, an epidural needle such as a Tuohy needle is used by the anaesthesiologist. The Tuohy needle is inserted into the nerve sheath, alongside a nerve plexus of the patient. The Tuohy needle has a sharp distal end that has a beveled aperture, the sharp distal end adapted to readily pierce the nerve sheath at the spinal column of the patient. Once the anaesthesiologist believes that she has placed the epidural needle at the appropriate location in the patient, she would insert the catheter into the needle and move the catheter until its distal end extends out from the beveled end of the needle cannula. The catheter is usually marked along its length so that the anaesthesiologist knows approximately how much the distal end of the catheter extends beyond the distal tip of the needle cannula. The direction in which the catheter is moved inside the patient depends, to a large extent, on the insertion and placement of the needle cannula inside the patient by the anaesthesiologist and the skill of anaesthesiologist in maneuvering the catheter. Oftentimes, an anaesthesiologist, experienced or not, may have a difficult time maneuvering the distal end of the catheter to the desired location. As a result, a larger than necessary dose of anesthetic agent may be required to be delivered to the patient to locally anaesthetize the patient.
There is therefore a need to provide a catheter that can readily be maneuvered by the physician to a desired location inside a patient.